Tag Archives: Venom

In late 2016 and early 2017, Marvel had the brainchild to take us back to the 80s. We join Peter Parker as he finally gets rid of the alien symbiote that will one day become Venom. But before that happens, the symbiote goes on an adventure with none other than Deadpool. You know nobody would be able to hang with that crazy dude for long. Well, five issues in this mini-series is all the future Venom could take. Back in Black is of course a reference to AC/DC’s album by the same name, released in 1980. The issue doesn’t scream over the top 80s references like I thought it would, but with the non-stop action over 5 issues, there isn’t really time to stop and take in the nostalgia.

Flash forward to the end of 2017, and we have a figure in hand of that very same Deadpool. He comes with a good number of accessories. None of them are new, but they are still cool none-the-less. He comes equipped with a grasping hand and a web-slinging hand. I was surprised that he really took on the persona of Spider-Man a lot in the book, and actually flew around with webs. He also comes with Toxin’s clawed hands, as well as one more grasping hand. He comes with the back arms that came with Space Venom, since he needs them for a classic scene from the book. In the book he gets a little crazy and fangs show up. We get that in a repaint of Superior Venom’s head. And then we get some weapons too. Deadpool’s own katana swords in a transparent pink to represent the swords he stole off an alien. He didn’t use them for long, but that was a fun scene.

Teamed up with his modern self, the Deadpool of ole didn’t wear all of the gear he does now. It was a simpler time, so his Black Suit is less detailed with guns and pouches and the rest. Pretty much as it was in the comic.

Throw on the backpack for some straight-out-of-the-comics fun with swords. Unfortunately the symbiote arms were made for Space Venom and holding hand guns. The swords are not held in place very strong. One side can hold a blade pretty well, but the other side is just placed there.

When the going get’s tough, Deadpool gets crazy. He showed some of the future Venom look with sharp fangs and claws. He grew in size too, but you cannot represent that in a single toy. I have one problem with the right hand on mine. It is extremely loose. When I put the hand in, it tends to flop around. The grasping hand even falls out when just standing there. I am going to have to work on getting that a bit tighter. Anyone have a good way of going about that, I am all ears.

By the time Deadpool was done, he realized that the symbiote was trying to take over his mind. Not happy about that, he was able to get rid of the alien. But then it wanted to hook up with Peter again. Deadpool said, “If you want him, you have to go through me.” Not happy about having to deal with Deadpool and his crazy mind again, it decided to go hunting for a new host. And the rest of the story is history…

This is a fine figure. Only two problems, holding the swords with the extra appendages, and a loose hand socket. The paint is pretty solid. I have heard of some problems with paint on the figures people have found in the store. Since I got mine online, I never got a choice. Thankfully mine came in good shape. This is a fun figure to go along with a richer history being filled in for Venom, Spider-Man, and of course, Deadpool. If you happen by a GameStop and are a fan of Marvel Legends, Deadpool, or Spider-Man, this is a figure to get.

We are continuing our look at the Sandman Wave of Marvel Legends. Over halfway done with this wave, so let’s not delay any longer.

Spider-Man (Black Costume):

Ah yes, a fan favorite. The Black Suit Spider-Man. Could this be when he was wearing the Venom Symbiote? Could be, but I am guessing not. We have had a lot of versions of Spider-Man so far, and this is yet another of the great suits. Besides his standard blue and red suit, this may come in second. Originally Black Cat gave him a copy of the Venom outfit (this time made of fabric). She thought it was very sexy. So of course Peter wore it. There were a few times it came out of retirement over the years. Each time was a troubling time for Peter, and it was reflected in the suit.

This is a very standard Spider-Man body. Once again relying on the paint to carry the naked buck with a new head. He has all of the great Spider-Man articulation that we know and love.

That is it for the Spider-Men for this wave. Three out of eight figures is enough I think. There are plenty more costumes we could see in the future. My hopes are on The Amazing Bag-Man where Peter wears a Fantastic 4 costume with a paper bag over his head. And of course a proper 6 inch Iron Spider.

The Jackal:

The Jackal!?!? Who the *bleep* is The Jackal. Oh yeah, another crazy scientist that Peter has enraged somehow or another. This guy came around after Gwen Stacy died at the hands of Green Goblin. See there, a double tie in to both Spider-Man AND Green Goblin in one wave. It wasn’t bad enough that Peter blamed himself for the death of Gwen, but now there is a crazy guy that wants to make a Gwen Clone. In the midst of all of the mess-ups and failed experiments, he created Ben Reilly (the Scarlet Spider). Yay! Scarlet Spider reference. I don’t care what people say, I was riveted to the Clone Saga.

This Jackal is one freakish looking dude. Scantily clad in a pair of blue underwear, he is hairy all over. They did such a good job covering him with texture. He only has some dark paint on his chest, but the sculpting is so nicely done that it looks like there are many colors all over the body.

He has some fantastic musculature, especially on his back. He is a creepy addition to to this lineup. I am sure he is nobody’s favorite bad guy, but he sure does bring something different to the display shelf.

The Spider-Verse is ever evolving. Old players come back. Sometimes for the better. Venom was a pretty old character. They did whatever they could to keep him relevant. But a homicidal symbiote alien can only do so much. He can take over good guys, bad guys, make alien children who are worse than he is. What do you do when all of that is done? You make him a good guy. Agent Venom is his name, and the suit is worn by none other than Flash Thompson. Wait what? Flash Thompson, the jerk that picked on poor teenager Peter Parker is now a good guy? He cleaned up his ways, went off to the military and became a good soldier before losing his legs.

Superhero landing!

Thompson and the Venom symbiote found their way into space, and a bit of adventures, with Venom being taken over with mind control. Finding their way to Venom’s home planet of Klyntar, the other Klyntar helped cure Venom of the craziness, allowing Thompson to tap into the full potential of Venom, creating quite a fine space faring knight, and an intergalactic ambassador of Earth. Can’t say I ever saw that coming from way back in the day when I first read the original comics of Spider-Man and Venom’s run-ins.

The figure is exactly what we want with a Build-a-Figure. He is a big boy. Strong and muscular. He as fairly good articulation. Most of the super-muscular guys tend to lose some of the articulation that the slight figures have.

He is mostly black, to no one’s surprise. He has his white trademark spider on his chest. Changing a bit from the original design of Venom, this version has some extra white detailing around the shoulders, and white on the insides of the hands. He still retains the white on the back of the hands. He even has white running up the back of his calves. Hasbro really did to a nice job with the paint this time around.

For his head and neck, it looks more like armor plating rather than organics. His head looks like a helmet with a strong brow and an equally strong jaw. I was surprised by how pointy the chin is. The ultra creepy eyes of the past are gone and what remains are white outlines similar to Agent Venom, with lines that bleed down his jaw.

This is a great finish to this wave. We have had quite a few BAFs from the Spider-Verse. Rhino was the biggest. Finally there is someone who can take him on face to face. Let the battle begin!

A lot of people skipped Morbius. He is not that great of a character, and he comes with a second set of arms. So most people looked at either Ben Reilly or Morbius, and swayed their way to the better figure to get Absorbing Man’s arms.

Morbuis is a bit of a strange guy. He has a weird skin color. Of course he is a vampire, so his skin would be a bit off, but he is pretty far off. His outfit is just skin tight paint with added bare forearms. Not a lot of originality here. He does come with two capes, so he can have arms up or arms down. That could be useful for the ACBA photographers.

Overall, this is the guy to skip in the line if you are trying to save money.

Speed Demon:

Speed Demon uses the skinny buck, and it works great on a speedster. Wait, are they still speedsters in the Marvel Universe?!?! Ah well, whatcha gonna do?

As with many of the fast guys, he seems to have a good sense of humor, and it shows with the smirk on his face. The rest of his body is just a painted buck, but there really isn’t a lot more they could have done for this guy.

He comes with a second pair of hands laid flat for running. It really adds to the illusion of his moving fast. They could also be used for karate chopping the good guys.

Speed Demon comes with one of the strangest accessories to date. A head mounted on a RC car. This is Silvermane, and he is missing his body. I guess Speed Demon is going to help him get it back. Either way, we get a bonus character in this wave.

Absorbing Man:

Absorbing Man comes with a lot of extra parts when if you get Morbius AND Ben Reilly. He comes with four arms, and two heads, along with the rest of his body, and a wrecking ball. This is the comic photographer’s dream. Each arm is a different material, flesh, steel, stone, and wood. Even one of his faces has stone to add to the effect of being able to change.

The wrecking ball is garbage. It is a hollow sphere with a molded chain attached. It isn’t even molded into a usable shape. This is definitely going to need some work.

This is definitely a wave for Spider-Man. It is potentially the first wave with 7-1 good to bad guys, if you give Ben Reilly the Carnage parts. Poor Gwen has a lot of work to do. There are generally more good guys in waves than this.

The next two waves coming up, Space Venom, and Juggernaut have nearly all good guys, so the hero factor will once again climb.

Venom is one bad dude. The original symbiote. He looks like he has taken over the muscle bound Eddie Brock in this form. He comes with a pair of heads that give him different looks. I love the smiley face head. I think Venom is way creepier with the sharp-toothed smile.

In the other version, he has his tongue out and slime is dripping out of his mouth. Can’t go wrong here either.

I think this is the most successful of the symbiote characters that we have seen lately (not including the Ben Reilly version which is a different level of cool). He looks very proportional, unlike the others we have seen that are a bit off. Sometimes simpler is better, and this is one of those cases.

He is a good looking guy. From far back, the webbing around the face takes away from the overall appearance of Venom. The great thing about the original Venom was the all black design. This gets a little muddled from far back.
He comes with four arms hanging off the back. They go into specific ports on the back. Two shorter arms coming over the top, and two longer arms hanging down.

This is Doc Ock, but not the fat Doc we remember from the past. He is a much more svelte version of himself.

“What do you say, Kraven? You wanna take a shot at taking down THIS spider?”

Kraven originally wanted a Spider for his wall. Will he even try to take on this one?

“Maybe I will just choke the life out of you, and then eat you!!!”

Overall I like this Venom. He looks good in his black wares. He has extra arms that are creepy. I am not too big on the webs up top, but they are comic accurate. And I am not too sure about his feet. I don’t generally like my heroes, or anti-heroes in bare feet. It just looks dangerous.